Long Road to Kumasi, Part III of IV

 

While I was with the Frimpongs, I spent most of my time with Heather, Joseph’s wife. Heather is originally from Burlington which is where she met Joseph, a Ghanaian. They have two children, Emma who is 6 and Jesse who is 3. Their nephew, Thomas, who is in his twenties, also lives with them.

Living with the Frimpongs was like being in an alternate universe from the one I left in Ajax. Joseph and Heather are a racially mixed couple like my sister Denise and her husband…Joseph. The Frimpongs have a daughter named Emma who is about the same age as Denise and Joe’s daughter, Ella. Ella and Emma both have developmental delays, but Emma’s delays make her a little slower and more hesitant than other children, while Ella is a firecracker, more like the Frimpongs’ younger son, Jesse. So it wasn’t quite like an episode of the Twilight Zone, but it was still quite the thing.

The Frimpongs have been trying to encourage Emma to learn to ride her bike, but she is terrified of it. She is also somewhat afraid of stairs, curbs, hills and any other places which are not flat level and even.

Emma, eager to please, did try to ride her bike for me, but for some reason she would only pedal backwards and not forwards and wouldn’t steer, so it didn’t go very well the first day.

I thought maybe the bike was too big for her, but it didn’t go any better when we tried on Jesse’s smaller bike either.

Jesse, on the other hand, is a 3 year old daredevil.

Jesse was whizzing around Emma on his little bike the first day I was there. Unfortunately for Emma, the second day I was there, Jesse got tired of his bike and decided to show Emma up by riding hers for her even though it is way to big for him.

Emma decided to stick to a more sturdy vehicle… and their best friend and neighbour, Kuci, took over Jesse’s bike.

Jesse and Emma both have adorable Ghanaian accents which I tried to capture in this video of us enjoying the sugar cane prep and consumption experience, but they didn’t talk all that much in the video so you might not be able to enjoy it as much as I did:

[Link to Video] - Sugarcane Video